


The 5 Impromptu Not-Dates of Victor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki

by violetlolitapop



Series: The Secret Lives of Catholic School Boys [3]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Jealous Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, all in all though p sure it's gonna be 90 percent fluff, also my last ballet class was like 20 year ago so, it's weird - Freeform, like i have tried remixing classical music with cumbia, the author takes so many damn liberties tbh, there's also some reference to what is clearly a domestic situation, this is part of a series but could totally be read as a stand alone tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-31
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:51:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8907949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetlolitapop/pseuds/violetlolitapop
Summary: "You guys have already gone on some dates.""No, we haven't?""Yeah, you have. Like, a lot.""Name them. Name me five times we've been on dates.""The midnight ice cream run date. The market date. The accidental weekend movie marathon date. The dance date. The music date. And that's not even mentioning all the other stuff like the birthday date.""...Those were not dates.""Okay. Sounds fake, but okay."





	1. The Midnight Ice Cream Run Date

It doesn’t happen too often. At least, not often enough that he wants a big deal to be made out of it. Although… maybe storming out like that doesn’t help matters. If he really thinks back to the conversation, they were both pretty wrong, but Victor is stubborn and he isn’t going to back down now.

At the same time though…

He breathes out heavily and shoves his hands in his pockets. It’s only a few hours till midnight, the street lights are dim, and it’s a bit more on the colder side than he expects. He could go to Yakov’s, it's not like he would ever turn him away. But, then a big deal would be made out of it and so he crosses that option out.

Chris? No, because again, a big deal is gonna be made out of it and he just… doesn’t want to talk about it.

He stands alone on the street corner and… he can’t even really think because who else is there? Chris is his only real friend and he’s certainly not going to turn up on the doorstep of an _acquaintance_ without rhyme or reason even if he’s confident enough to charm his way in. Then there’s the problem with Makkachin…

Victor looks down at his ever-loyal pup sitting on the pavement next to him. His tail wagging and waiting for their next move.

Who’s gonna let not only him, but his dog into their home for… hopefully just the night, but that’s a problem to deal with in the morning.

Victor sighs. He really didn't think this out. He was too caught up in his emotions and now he's in a bit of a situation. Ahh… he’s gonna end up sleeping on a park bench like some kind of vagabond blowing into town on his way to the next adventure.  Oh cruel, fate! To spurn someone so young to a life of destitution and uncertainty!

Makkachin yaps at him and brings him out of his dramatic thoughts. It works, he ends up more focused on the well-being of his dog and less on himself.

“But I have no idea where to go though…” he mutters.

A blast of cold air whips around him and it makes him scrunch into himself. He needs to get moving to warm up if he’s not going to actually be somewhere warm…

Warm…

Yuuri!

Oh… but would that be fair?l

“I don’t care, I want to see him,” Victor says and calls for Makkachin to follow him. He’s made up his mind, they’re going to Yuuri’s house.

It’s not too far of a walk, Yuuri only lives a neighborhood or so away. It’s only something like a twenty minute walk before he finally finds himself in front of a familiar two story house and his spirits start to lift just a little bit. Although, he makes it that far before he realizes that he has no idea just which window leads to Yuuri’s bedroom. It’s pretty late, and he doesn’t want to catch anyone else’s attention just in case they have questions he doesn’t want to give answers to. Well, all of them except one is shut off upstairs and if he knows Yuuri half as well as he likes to think he does, he should be watching videos on his laptop by now.

Makkachin bounces around as Victor scours the ground for tiny rocks or pebbles to throw at the window. He collects just enough and starts to toss each one against the glass to catch Yuuri’s attention. Oh, he can picture it now! Yuuri will come to the window and see Victor waving at him from the lawn. He’ll be so surprised and flustered to be caught in his pajamas but he’ll open the window anyway because he won’t just leave Victor outside alone like that!

And Victor will call up to him, and Yuuri will look down with a soft gaze as yellow light spills out from behind him in a manner most fitting for such a precious angel–

The window slams open and it’s not Yuuri.

“I don’t know who you think you are,” his sister starts to shout from the window, “but this ain’t cute, and it’s not–!”

She spots Victor staring up at her with the blankest expression and in mid-throw and she loses all of her hostility. If anything, now she just looks amused.

“Oh… hey, you’re Yuuri’s boyfriend, right?!” she calls out to him.

“His- No! We’re not dating!” Victor tells her.

“Yeah, okay,” she laughs and brushes off his denial with a wave of her hand. “His room is the next one. Remember that for future romantic stunts like this.”

Well… Victor can’t tell her any different there when this whole scenario is something out of a cliched 80's romcom. He just shrugs up at her. Mari laughs agan, and it's in a way that’s similar to Yuuri, he thinks when she leaves her window and disappears back into her room, but it’s just not as enchanting. Not that he's biased or anything.

He’s about ready to start throwing the small rocks again, but then the light in what he now knows is Yuuri’s room turns on and it gives him a reason to stand still until finally Yuuri comes over to his window and opens it up to look down at Victor with a question on his face. His hair is sticking up in the back and the shirt he wears has a neckline large enough for it to slip over one of his shoulders. Not that he's staring or anything.

“Hi, Yuuri!” Victor waves up at him as his stomach does a weird flip.

“What are you doing here?” Yuuri asks before anything else.

“I’m hurt! I travel all this way to see you and I don’t even get a hello!”

“Yeah, Yuuri, you should be nicer to your boyfriend.”

His sister shows up back in her window with a cigarette in between her fingers. That has Victor looking back at her, is she even old enough to smoke? He has no idea... In any case, she’s smirking like no one’s business and even laughs at her brother’s growing red face.

“He’s not– Go back inside!” Yuuri yells at her.

“Can’t do that when I’m smoking,” she says. “House rules, you know that.”

“Mari!”

Yuuri glares at her a little before giving his attention back to Victor. He shrugs down at him and says, “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

“I’m not really sure,” Victor tells him honestly. “Just wanted to see what you were up to– “

“He was jerkin’ it,” Mari says.

“No, I wasn’t!”

“-and I just really wanted to see your face!”

“Wow,” comes from Mari. “That’s sappy.”

Victor laughs, because boy, is she right! Yuuri's blush just continues to grow deeper.

“Go back into your room!”

“Still smoking!”

“And I wasn’t doing that,” Yuuri turns away from her to look back at Victor. His face isn’t completely red but his cheeks are very visible from where Victor stands and that’s adorable enough. “I was just watching anime.”

“Oh! Which one?!”

“The ballroom one.”

“Without me?! Yuuri! That’s our thing!”

“None of the episodes we haven’t seen together, just the older ones! You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Wooow," comes from Mari once more, "that's super–“

“Go back in your room!”

"Make me."

“Mari, leave your brother alone!”

Somewhere in between the sibling bickering and Victor being too busy appreciating Yuuri’s face while it happened, the downstairs window had opened and Yuuri’s mother had popped out to join the conversation. She's hanging out much like her children are, except twisted about so that she has a better way to look up at both of them.

“Hi, Mrs Katsuki!” Victor greets and waves.

“Hello, Victor,” she smiles at him. “Cute puppy!”

Makkachin barks like he knows he’s being talked about.

“You brought Makkachin?” Yuuri asks and leans out a little further. “Oh, hi, Makkachin!”

“The dog gets a hi and your boyfriend doesn’t?” Mari asks him. “That’s kind of messed up.”

“I’m ignoring you.”

As entertaining as all of this is, Victor really just wants some alone time with Yuuri. Maybe if he can get him away from the house, he can get just that.

“You wanna take him out for a walk with me?” Victor calls up to him.

“It’s the middle of the night?” Yuuri sounds totally uncertain.

“We can still go somewhere,” he shrugs.

“Where?”

“You can go to the pharmacy!”

The other downstairs window is opened now, and Victor is not at all surprised to see that Yuuri’s father has now joined the conversation. He's hanging out of his own window much like his wife is, with a smile that says he is just as entertained with all of this just like everyone else. Victor briefly wonders what the neighbors think of this family…

“Dad!" Yuuri calls down to him. "Why?!”

"Because it's opened 24 hours and only four blocks away."

"No, I mean why?!"

Yuuri doesn't even say what he means, he just gestures at the way his father has shoved himself out of a downstairs window backwards to yell up at him. Mr Katsuki only laughs a little and gives his son a shrug.

“Everyone else was doing it!”

“We can do that!” Victor cuts in to bring the conversation back. “We can get some ice cream and just walk around ‘till Makkachin gets tired!”

“Is that why you’re out? Cos it is really late-“

“Oh my, god, Yuuri," Mari drawls. "Your boy is trying to be romantic, just go out with him.”

“He’s not my–“

“Oh, do you remember our first late night ice cream trip?” Yuuri’s mother asks his father. They’re not even paying attention to their children anymore, now they’re suddenly lost in memory lane. "When Hizaki-san used to stay open late in the plaza?"

“I was so embarrassed not being able to buy your own cone!” Mr Katsuki says. “I can’t believe I had left my wallet on the bus like that!”

“But it was fine, sharing the one just gave us an excuse to cuddle up and eat together!”

"We sat on the balcony outside of Oiwake and listened to all the people drinking and doing karaoke!"

"Do you remember how you said you were going to show them all up by dedicating a song to me?"

From upstairs both children groan and gag. Mari puts her cigarette out without a word and retreats back into her room and Yuuri has the most uncomfortable expression on his face.

“Okay!" he shouts. "Okay, I’m getting dressed just so I don’t have to hear this!”

The window slams shut and Victor is just left with both Katsuki parents. It leaves him sweating a bit. He knows the family is easy going, but are they really okay with Yuuri going out this late at night so randomly?

“Just try to bring him home before one,” Mrs Katsuki tells him like she knows what he's thinking. “It’s not a big deal if it’s later than that, but we would just rest easier.”

Victor gives her the most sincere smile he can muster up and promises to have him home by one. She smiles back at him, and tells him that she trusts him because she knows he’s a good boy, and Victor is so happy that Yuuri has this family.

When Yuuri does make his way out of the house, both parents are still hanging out of the window and call out for the both of them to be safe and to have fun. Yuuri only looks mildly embarrassed now, but he ends up going full red when his father says something to him in Japanese. Victor doesn't even have a chance to ask for a translation because Yuuri grabs at his hand and nearly runs in the direction of the pharmacy and calls out for Makkachin to follow them. Victor just laughs as he's pulled along.

They eventually start walking at a more normal pace and the normal kind of conversation comes up. Things like school work, what classes are more redundant over the years, their best friends, the new shows they’ve started watching, music they want to share with each other, how Makkachin has been doing since Victor adopted him.

Neither one has let go of the other’s hand.

They don’t really notice or question it even as they enter the pharmacy and make it to the ice cream bar. They technically don’t even notice it then; they pick out the flavors they want, size and all, and it's not until Victor has to pay that they even realize what they've been doing. They don't make it a big deal as their hands let go of each other and Victor fishes his wallet out. The only reaction out of it is how Yuuri just flushes a light pink and Victor feels the bridge of his nose heat up a little.

The cashier looks like she hates her job and wants to be anywhere but here at the moment and probably doesn’t even notice any of this happening.

She hands over their ice cream cups and Victor’s change and they walk out. There’s a park across the street that Yuuri suggests they go to. He looks down at Makkachin and asks him if he wants to go to the park in the cutest baby voice Victor has ever heard.

They cross the street, and Makkachin automatically starts bouncing around. For awhile Yuuri entertains him with a small enough stick they can play a game of fetch with. The two of them wander around until they hit the playground.

“Should we sit on a bench to eat?” Yuuri asks. “Will Makkachin still be willing to play is we did that?”

“Probably, but why the bench? I wanna swing!”

“You can’t swing and eat out of the cup at the same time.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure I can. I am amazing, after all.”

“Victor…”

And of course, Victor doesn’t listen. He sweeps right past Yuuri and aims for the swing set. Oh, hey, a tire swing! He’s done this before, he knows he can jump on that! That’ll show Yuuri just how amazing he is.

Victor takes a running start and jumps up high.

Now, the last time Victor did this and succeeded he was with Chris. Chris, who had been on the other side to hold it still, and he had access to both hands. That he used to hold himself steady while spinning around. He doesn’t take any of this into account, he only has one goal: impress Yuuri, and look good while doing it.

He's able to grab onto a chain with one hand, and tries to plant his feet on the swinging mass of rubber that is now flying out of control.

He ends up falling over backwards and lands with an ugly sounding thud where his head hits the ground.

His eyes are scrunched closed and he does his best to fight through the pounding sensation in his head. There are wood chips digging into his back, and he vaguely hears Yuuri shouting and doesn’t even really register him until he’s on his knees right by his side.

“Are you okay?!” he cries out and puts Victor’s head into his lap.

Victor feels him running his hands everywhere to check for injuries. That’s so nice.

“I think I hurt myself,” Victor groans and acts a little more dramatically than needed. “Yuuri, help me.”

“How? Victor, what hurts?!”

“My face… kiss it better?”

He’s suddenly no longer in Yuuri’s as the other boy stands up. Victor isn’t even mad though, he starts laughing and end up rolling over onto the nearby grass. The pounding has dulled down some, but there might be some of those wood chips caught in his hair. All the same, he thinks he’ll be okay.

“I was seriously worried, y’know,” Yuuri says without an ounce of sounding amused.

“I know, and I’m seriously hurt. Not too badly though…. Help me up?”

“I really shouldn’t,” Yuuri says, but he’s only teasing now if that soft, little smile is anything to go by. He holds out his hand and helps Victor back up. “And here I am, ready to share my ice cream with you, and you start playing around like that...”

Victor blinks. That’s so sweet! But then he looks down and sees that Yuuri is still holding onto him… with both hands.

“Where is your ice cream?”

Now Yuuri blinks. He looks down to see nothing but a handful of Victor and then looks around in a rush.

Just a few feet away from Victor’s over turned ice cream cup is Yuuri’s, flung off to the side and spilling out everywhere. He must have dropped it when he ran over to check on Victor. They stare at each other, and it’s not clear who starts laughing, but they do.

And then promptly stop because Makkachin starts sniffing at Yuuri’s spilled cup and they run over to him. Trust a dog to always go for chocolate...

They end up leaving the park after clearing it from their mess and walk back across the street to the pharmacy. The cashier stares at them and raises an eyebrow, but it’s most likely because she’s seeing them again for a second time that night and not at the fact that they had ended up holding hands again.

They don’t go back to the park, Makkachin looks like he’s had enough of that and frankly, so have they. They end up sitting outside the pharmacy, just on some random curb with their knees knocking into each other’s and Makkachin settling down for a nap next to Victor.

“Well, that was a thing that happened,” Yuuri says and digs into his new cup.

“I know.. And to think we could’ve shared an ice cream like your parents did, that would’ve been cute to share with them.”

“Oh, my god, shut up!”

"Maybe we can find a karaoke place to let us in and I'll dedicate a song to you!"

"I'm going to shove this spoon down your throat."

They do end up eating out of each other’s cups and finishing their treats together, but that’s not something they find too important at the moment.

The outing ends with Victor walking Yuuri back home and then hugging him good night. Yuuri goes back inside and Victor hangs around the porch before he realizes he can’t do that anymore and starts to walk off.

(He actually doesn’t get very far, he sits out on the curb trying to figure out what to do next when Mari opens her window again and they have another shouty conversation that wakes up Yuuri’s parents and before he knows it he’s being dragged into their home and into Yuuri’s room.)

(They get one warning joke about no hanky panky that turns them both red and yet somehow they end up sharing Yuuri’s twin bed with Makkachin curled up at their feet.)

(All in all, the whole start of the night is worth waking up to Yuuri cuddling into chest and wow he wants to wake up like this every morning.)


	2. The Market Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri ends up pushing the cart, and inevitably Victor once he climbs inside of it because of course he does. Phichit does the same thing, but unlike Phichit, when Victor tilts his head back to say or ask something Yuuri doesn’t feel that small bit of a choking sensation at the base of his throat or the need to constantly give him little smiles. Victor really is adorable, he can’t deny that.

Yuuri isn’t blind.

In the metaphorical sense, anyway, because even if his prescription isn’t _terrible_ it’s still a bad idea to _not_ wear his glasses.

All the same he’s not completely oblivious, and he knows Victor has some interest in him that may well be beyond the lines of friendship. He’s not exactly sure _what_ though, and that’s the issue his mind keeps dealing with. Maybe if he wasn’t constantly over analyzing every interaction they have and is simply able to accept that there’s just something about _him_ that keeps Victor around his life would be a lot easier.

But his mind is a hurricane that is his burden to bear, so no, he’s not able to accept it as just that.

He’s not all that attractive, in his eyes anyway, but even when he looks at himself with an unbiased eye (which he _does do_ he doesn’t care what Phichit has to say about it) he still can’t see anything remarkable about himself. He’s a proficient enough dancer, but he still has a lot of work to do before he can even have a stage presence that would have him stand out enough to be noticed in the future. He’s not popular, Phichit is usually the only one that is by his side though that might be because Leo does go to a public school, but still.

He doesn’t consider himself interesting, not in the conventional sense, but then again… Victor is pretty strange too, as he’s come to find from so much exposure.

He’s very different from the persona he puts on display for other people. It might have taken his entire Freshman year to finally be comfortable around him, but maybe it really is for the best.

Yuuri has once thought Victor as a charming, infallible idol posed on the unreachable pedestal of popularity while looking as handsome and regal as ever. Now, he know that he’s a childish, petty, super clingy, and makes heart eyes at every dog he sees.

Still handsome though. Yuuri will give him that.

He’s also ready to drop whatever he’s doing, whenever he’s doing it, just to cater _to_ Yuuri. That’s something that he’s noticed recently, but the more he thinks about it, the more true it becomes.

Mentions that he left his pencil box at home? Here comes Victor with his own stocked up with unused items for Yuuri to use. He mentions in passing how he wants something sweet to eat after lunch? Here comes Victor with a chocolate bar. Feeling sleepy? Victor brought some coffee! Headache? Here’s an asprin and a cup of water. Stomach ache? He just happens to have a thermos of tea for that! Shoelace snapped while trying to tie it? Don’t worry, Victor’s got a replacement and he’ll even tie them himself.

Sometimes… it makes Yuuri wonder what he could get away with. How much could he push Victor to his own advantage and still keep him around? He does like him, he _really_ does like him, but still… it would be an interesting experiment.

“Do you wanna go to the market with me?”

He ends up asking this right in the middle of Victor’s ongoing ramble about the puppy he’s finally been allowed to adopt. It’s so rude, and he realizes this enough to start feeling that burn on his cheeks.

“I’m sorry!” he says quickly enough. “I just- I just kinda remembered I had to do that, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“No, that’s okay,” says Victor and sets his water bottle down.

It’s a nice enough day that they had decided to eat lunch outside and it’s been relatively peaceful. Yuuri isn’t sure if he disturbed that peace just now with the way Victor is looking at him like he just offered him some sort of great treasure he’s been coveting, and wow, is that a thought!

“You need to go to the market?” he asks.

“Oh, yeah, I- My mom asked me to pick up some things on the way home from school since it’s more on my route instead of Mari’s. Um, I just remembered that when you were talking about all the things you’ve been buying Makkachin.”

“Uh huh. And you want me to go with you?”

“Yeah, I mean, if you want to?”

“I would love to!” Victor nearly shouts and grabs at Yuuri’s hands. “Oh, I should tell Chris we can’t hang out today.”

“If you already have other plans- “

“No, it’s okay! We hang out all the time anyway! Oh, but I should tell him before lunch ends. Watch my food, I’ll be right back!”

Victor hops off from the small ledge him, Yuuri, and Phichit camped out on for lunch. His crumpled up brown bag falls onto its side without the support of his body and he flashes them a quick smile before practically sprinting away. Yuuri watches after him and wonders if maybe he should have thought this out a little more thoroughly instead of just letting his mouth say whatever it wanted. He looks over at Phichit who is now grinning a little too manically into his sandwich and thinks that yeah, he really should have thought about this.

“Yuuri,” Phichit nearly sings.

“No.”

“Yuuuuri!”

“No!”

“My baby’s all grown up!”

“Phichit, no!”

He already knows it’s coming, but Yuuri still isn’t prepared for Phichit launching himself at Yuuri and tackling him off the ledge.

After school, Yuuri waits for Victor outside the wrought iron gates. He originally had planned to meet up with him after his last class, but apparently, Victor had gotten into an argument with the professor and was sent to speak with Father Feltsman.

He does wonder what that’s about, but he isn’t sure if he has any right to ask about it. Phichit had told him to just ask before he left him to wait, but should he?

He forgets about worrying on it as soon as Victor does show up though. There isn’t the sign that anything is wrong on his face and if anything, he looks happier than ever.

“Yuuri!” He’s waving and wearing that heart-shaped smile that always makes him smile in turn. “Have you been waiting long? I’m sorry I wasn’t in class.”

“It’s okay,” Yuuri tells him. “What happened?”

Victor just waves his hand away. “It’s not important. Wanna head out now?”

He holds his arm out for Yuuri to take, as if he’s some sort of 19th Century nobleman taking his date out on the dancefloor. It’s not something he hasn’t done before, he plays around Yuuri like this pretty often that he’s used to it, but Yuuri’s never really taken up the offer.

He does now.

Just to see.

He loops his arm around Victor’s and ends up pressed a little closer to him than usual whenever they walk somewhere together. He practically needs to will his face to keep from turning any other color and looks up to see Victor’s own surprised set staring down at him. He’s still good-looking, but now he looks more approachable with the pink dancing on the bridge of his nose.

“Sure!” Yuuri says with a small smile. “I’ll lead the way?”

“Um, yeah. Yeah, sure!”

They end up in step, and every now and again they bump into each other and it interrupts their conversation with reminding them just how close they are. Though when they do reach the market, Yuuri finds that he’s a little sad to let Victor go. He also finds himself a little colder now that they’re not near one another, but he’s not going to dwell on that when he really does need to pick some things up for the house.

Yuuri ends up pushing the cart, and inevitably Victor once he climbs inside of it because of course he does.  Phichit does the same thing, but unlike Phichit, when Victor tilts his head back to say or ask something Yuuri doesn’t feel that small bit of a choking sensation at the base of his throat or the need to constantly give him little smiles. Victor really is adorable, he can’t deny that.

Yuuri passes him the small bit of groceries he needs, and Victor keeps the more fragile items in his lap. They go through the cleaning aisle to pick up another set of items, and then stop by at a sample cart where Victor feeds him a water cracker with some new kind of spreadable cheese.

“Is it good?” he asks.

“It is!”

“Yay! Have another!”

He doesn’t get why Victor just won’t let him take the cracker himself, but it’s a pretty good snack so he lets himself be fed as the keep going through the store.

They start making their way to the registers when he sees it right there at the bottom of a huge display of giant stuffed animals of all kinds piled so, so high right on top of each other, and he just has to stop and stare.

Yuuri does love dogs, and he’s a little jealous of Victor for being able to adopt Makkachin when he wants one too… He probably could have one, but after his last pup…

“Yuuri?”

He’s tossed out of his thoughts and sees that Victor is looking at him once again, but this time his gaze is questioning and he goes to look at where Yuuri has been staring and then back again at Yuuri. He still says nothing though.

“The giant dog at the bottom of the pile looks like Makkachin,” Yuuri says with a slight shrug and a smile. “I was just thinking that it would be fun to snuggle with since, y’know, I don’t have a puppy.”

He tries to look like his observation is no big deal, even as Victor does the back and forth thing again. He has this little furrow between his eyebrows and a determined look in his eye that Yuuri just knows is going to cause trouble.

“I’ll buy it for you.”

“What?!”

“I’ll buy it for you,” Victor repeats and he says it sterner, like now he is a man on a mission that must be carried out at all costs.

“Victor, that thing has to be like, a hundred dollars.”

Yuuri tries to be rational and the voice of reason, but Victor picks off the items in his lap and jumps out of the cart. He really is set on buying him this.

“Where am I even gonna put it?!”

“We’ll find a place!” Victor calls out to him and races over the stuffed animals.

“How are we even gonna carry it out of here?!” Yuuri shouts and races after him.

“We’ll find a way!”

He says it in a way that makes Yuuri believe him even if the reality is a lot less likely. He has that kind of power, and sometimes Yuuri just can’t help but get caught up in it.

Victor takes the time to ponder the pile with his hands on his lips. He makes little humming noises and seems intent on thinking up the best way to get this dog out from underneath everything else.

He grabs at it front paws and pulls. Hard.

Yuuri is able to push the cart out of the way of the oncoming avalanche.

“Victor!”

Victor is now trapped under who knows how many pounds of fluff and faux fur and Yuuri would not be surprised if this is how he was meant to go all along. But he can’t do that, because for as annoying as he can be, he really does like Victor and wants him to stay around for a bit longer.

This is what he thinks as he battles his way through stuffed bears, cats, and other animals too and doesn’t stop until he reaches Victor’s flushed face gasping for air. Yuuri lets out a little sigh of relief and a small thanks to god on seeing this idiot boy is still breathing.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“I think I lost the dog in the avalanche,” Victor confesses quietly.

“That doesn’t matter, you idiot,” Yuuri says with a light laugh and put his hand against the other boy’s cheek.

Victor huffs out a small indignant laugh and leans into Yuuri’s touch. It’s a nice moment.

“What happened here?!”

And it’s broken by a frazzled looking employee that seems like he’s ready to burst into tears at the sight of this mess. Yuuri drags Victor up and the two of them go into a non-stop stream of apologies even as they take the time to help clean up the mess. Yuuri hopes his mom won’t be too upset with him taking a little longer than he should have, but, oh well…

(In the end he doesn't buy the dog because it is too expensive, and Victor ends up walking Yuuri all the way home because no way is he going to let him carry the groceries and supplies alone. And of course, he's going to do the kind thing and help him put them away. Of course, now he must be introduced to Yuuri's mother and that leads to Victor being invited to dinner and that leads to them sitting side by side and Victor being Victor throughout the entire meal.)

(And that leads to Mari making a face at him from across the table and he's sorry because he knows how she feels about lovey-dovey couples and okay, wow, he did not just think of himself and Victor like that!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> think of a makkachin looking stuffed animal but the size of a [ costco bear ](https://pics.onsizzle.com/179-99-costco-bear-3533640.png)
> 
> that's what victor wanted to buy yuuri.
> 
> if i had to timeline this, i would say this is prolly the first date and would put them at the end of yuuri's freshman year and victor's junior year.
> 
> also who wants to scream with me about that pair skate?! huh?! anyone?! WOW! *finger guns*


	3. The Accidental Weekend Movie Marathon Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What’s The King and the Skater?”  
> Phichit screams.  
> Yuuri groans.

“What’s The King and the Skater?”

Phichit screams.

Yuuri groans.

And that’s how Victor finds himself caught in the middle of an intense movie marathon. Well… as much as a marathon is possible when it’s just the one movie…

“I haven't been able to get a hold of the sequel yet, but I will!” Phichit tells him on the way back from the bodega. “And you just don't understand, it's more than a movie! It’s a religious experience.”

“Don’t let your mom hear you say that,” Yuuri says, but he’s smiling all the same.

Each one of them is carrying a small bag full of drinks and snacks that Phichit insisted they would need because not only will they be watching the movie, but also the Director’s cut, and then again with the additional commentary of the entire cast. Not to mention a thorough listening of the original cast recording, and he has the sequel for that one, no body worry about that!

Originally, Victor had just wanted the excuse to hang out with Yuuri over the weekend. He’s kind of wishing he had kept his mouth shut when Phichit mentioned it because with the way he's going on, it seems like he's way over his head now.

Phichit is still rambling about how one day he’ll get to see it live when Yuuri catches his eye and gives him a smile with that cute little half-shrug of his like he knows what he's thinking.

Ah, well, it might not even be that bad...

They decide to do it at Yuuri’s house since Phichit’s family has had enough of his intense love for the movie and Victor can’t even imagine having them over at his when he knows it won’t be empty. It works out best since no one is home and they don't have to deal with parental small talk, so they just go straight up to Yuuri’s room and Phichit immediately takes over the laptop sitting on the desk in front of the window.

“Yeah, just go ahead and help yourself,” Yuuri says with so much sarcasm in his voice.

“Thanks, babe!”

Victor doesn’t pay their back and forth very much attention. He likes Yuuri’s room for general reasons, and likes to take in as much as possible when he can. This isn’t the first time he’s been inside, and it won’t be the last if he has anything to say about it, but still… It’s like he doesn’t want to take his presence for granted when standing in a space that Yuuri is most himself in.

If that makes sense.

Phichit brings the laptop over to the bed and sits at the foot of it where he adjusts the screen so they can all see. Yuuri ends up sitting by the headboard and pats at the spot next to him so that Victor can join them.

“Saving the best seat for me?” he jokes.

“You’re gonna wanna be comfortable,” Yuuri tells him and even goes as far as to throw a small lap sized blanket over them. “Trust me, there is a reason why we bought snacks.”

“I couldn’t have possibly known about the long ride I was in for,” Victor replies and leans in a little close. “What would I ever do without you?”

“You would suffer, I’m sure.”

 “Quit flirting and pay attention!”

Yuuri’s head snaps in Phichit’s direction so fast that Victor’s surprised to not have heard his neck snap.

“We’re not!”

“Not important!” Phichit shouts back without tearing his eyes away from the screen and pressing play. “Pay attention!”

Victor leans back against the headboard with a quiet huff of a laugh and Yuuri slowly falls back into the same place he was at before. They end up watching the movie all the way to the end, a little quieter but still talking and making enough noise that has Phichit _shh!_ at them every now and again, but when it comes time to watch the Director’s Cut, Victor starts feeling himself droop off. The movie just feels so much longer, and Yuuri is so warm next to him…

The next thing he knows he’s waking up in Yuuri’s bed with Yuuri snoring softly next to him as well. There’s a bright pink post-it note on his forehead, and Victor plucks it off to read it.

y _ou guys just can’t appreciate good art! >_____<_

Phichit…

Victor crumples up the note and tosses it aside. He yawns and rolls over onto his back and stares up at the ceiling. He counts 12 little glow in the dark stars plastered up there and smiles a little. Just when he had thought he had seen all of Yuuri’s room…

His eyes close again, and he must nod off once more because the next time they open, Yuuri is shaking at him.

“What happened?” he asks, and his voice is still sleepy.

“Hmm?” Victor blinks at him a little, and then remembers the note. “Oh, Phichit left.”

“…Wha?”

“Yeah, something about us not appreciating art.”

“Ugh… He better not go through one of those moods where he ignores me for a few days and talks in the third person to let me know I hurt his feelings.”

“… He does that?”

“Only when it comes to the movie. I don’t know.”

Yuuri lies back down next to him and there are no blushes or burning ears or sputtered excuse to suddenly need space between them. Yuuri simply exists besides Victor, and it speaks volumes as to how this small space with just them is so comfortable. He wants it to never end.

“Want to watch a movie?”

Yuuri laughs.

“What?” Victor asks. “We still have a bunch of snacks, we should just go ahead and have an actual marathon.”

“And watch what?”

Victor bites his lip and decides that since he already knows about his Eurovison playlist, he may as well just tell him.

“I have a really big collection of kung-fu movies we can watch.”

Yuuri turns his head to stare at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yes?”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs. “I’ve just always really liked them. I’ve always kind of been into the ninja scene. The way they disguise themselves and always go on super important missions to save the world but always fighting hand-to-hand! It’s cool.”

Again, Yuuri just keeps staring at him, but this time he’s fighting a smile back.

“You like kung-fu movies because ninjas?” he asks.

“..Yes?”

“Ninjas don’t do kung-fu,” he says and here comes that smile.

“What?!”

“Ninjas are from Japan, if you wanna be general, they would do karate.”

“…What?!”

“Victor! Oh, my god!”

He laughing full stop now and Victor starts to hit him with his own pillow. It goes on until they finally do upload a movie from his drive and settle back under Yuuri’s blanket with more opened snacks.

“Why do I feel like a jackass for thinking kung-fu and karate were the same thing?” he asks in between bites of a candy bar.

“You just didn’t know,” Yuuri says and opens another can of soda. “It’s fine, I still love you anyway, and you’ll figure out the difference soon enough now.”

Victor’s chewing slows down. He swallows heavily and doesn’t take another bite because he’s pretty sure he just heard what he thinks he heard and if Yuuri’s burning cheeks mean anything he definitely did say it…

He lets it go though… For now…

Yuuri’s mother interrupts them for dinner and they pause the movie for the short while they're away to eat. They get told to not stay up too late, but they end up doing so anyway. Victor does have a lot of movies in his collection, and they’re all pretty corny with their 70’s era special effects and bad dubbing. He enjoys them, and he’s glad that besides the small ribbing Yuuri gives the _movies_ and not _him_ the other boy seems to be having just as much fun as he is.

They both end up back asleep somewhere near dawn, and Victor dreams of being a King in a land that is under siege and needs to find someone to lead his armies to victory. Yuuri is there, wearing a black outfit and ice skates for some reason, but he promises to defeat Victor’s enemies and bring back peace so they can skate peacefully again.

Victor grabs at Yuuri’s right hand and lifts it up. He sees a glinting gold ring wrapped around one of his fingers and begins to bring it up to his lips when suddenly he loses sight of the scene.

His dreams are interrupted by a strange combination of bright sunlight and loud crunching. He wakes up to Phichit sitting on the floor and staring at the two of them while shoving a handful of potato chips in his mouth.

“I can’t believe you’re both in the same position I left you in yesterday,” he says after finishing his snack. “Boooy...”

Victor stares at him. Then at Yuuri curled up against him again. Then back at Phichit. He just shrugs.

(Victor thinks Phichit is just a little strange, but he still likes him well enough. He doesn’t even mind how he had taken a photo of them sleeping with him posed in front of them with a scandalized expression on his face and posts it on Instagram.)

(He especially likes the caption that reads: “tfw your favorite movie is responsible for this pure moment #bless #thekingandtheskater #younglove)

(He likes it and saves it.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> other authors: my beta and i tag teamed to make sure this was as perfect as possible!
> 
> me: i literally wrote this at 4:27 am, passed out, woke up, and am posting with now 20 min to get to work. lemme know if i messed up anywhere, i will take it seriously but then forget about it cos i'm actually a shit human being.


	4. The Dance Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Teach me something- Or actually can I lift you?”  
> “What?!”  
> “Yeah, dancers do that, right? Like they lift the ballerinas during the dance?”  
> “Well, yeah-“  
> “I wanna lift you!”  
> “You can’t just lift- Victor! Put me down!”

Yuuri figured he wouldn’t see much of Victor over the summer break. It’s something that he was both kind of sad to realize and a little relieved. Towards the end of the semester, Victor had become just a little more clingy than usual and started hanging off from him whenever possible.

Whenever.

Possible.

He cannot stress that enough.

“I’m just gonna miss Yuuri so much!” he had tried to explain after a particularly embarrassing scene in the restrooms.

Yuuri bites his lip to fight off a laugh from just remembering the incident. Victor is such a handful sometimes… But he can’t lie, he does miss him a little. It’s only been a couple weeks into their vacation and it’s not like they aren’t texting each other constantly, but it’s not the same as seeing each other every day.

Ah, well, Yuuri sighs. The school year will start up again soon and he’ll be starting out as a sophomore… Which means Victor will be a senior…

That’s right, Victor has one more year at school with him, and then he’s gone…

What a sobering thought, and it leaves him with the most uneasy feeling at the bottom of his stomach. It’s not something he should probably be thinking about when on his way to practice. He doesn’t like to be distracted, so instead he puts his earbuds in and starts to go through his music. He really should figure out what to do today since he’s on his own.

Minako had just given him a set of his own keys to the studio and said, “Just because I’m going on vacation doesn’t mean you are. And don’t slack, your sister will tell me!”

He believes that, too…

Lately him and Leo have been experimenting with classical remixed with hip hop and piano covers of cumbia, and it’s been fun, but he’s just not feeling it today. He goes through some things that he’s downloaded before when he first started to do his own choreography. He figures maybe after his stretches he’ll just improvise for an hour or so instead of going through the normal practice routine.

Nothing is really catching his eye until-

Hm.

He plays the track and closes his eyes. He’s not totally familiar with the translation of the aria, but he knows the music, and he knows the emotion. It doesn’t completely distract him from his earlier thoughts, but it will help him use them for something more productive.

Or maybe not, since the approaching bus has to honk at him repeatedly so he can open his eyes already and notice that it’s here.

He gives the driver a sheepish little grin as a small apology and taps his card quickly. The bus takes off without him in a seat and he balances his way towards the back to find one. He does find one. He also finds Victor.

“Victor?”

The other boy had been tapping away on his phone and didn’t even notice Yuuri sitting down across from him. He looks up at his name though, and there’s an unreadable expression on his face that quickly melts away into him looking nothing short of happy.

“Yuuri! What are you doing here?”

“I’m on my way to practice,” says Yuuri. “Where are you going?”

“Oh! Well… That is a good question!”

That expression comes back on his face and Victor looks away from him. He’s never seen Victor look like this before, he’s not sure if he likes it. He’s used to Victor’s heart-shaped smiles and constant stream of laughter and aura of confidence. Right now he looks like he’s lost and isn’t sure how to undo that. Yuuri has no idea what’s happening, he can only wait for Victor to just talk to him.

“I didn’t want to stay at home,” he finally says. “Makkachin’s in surgery right now-“

 “Surgery?!”

“Oh, he’s just being neutered, it’s not a big deal.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah… I already bugged Chris at work, and now I’m just… riding the bus! Trying to figure out what to do next?”

The smile he gives Yuuri is half-hearted at best and something in Yuuri’s heart clenches. He can’t let Victor just wander around like this.

“Do you wanna come watch me dance?”

That was such a weird question, that really was a weird question, why did he ask that? God, Victor is looking at him with the widest eyes ever and he wishes he could just take that whole minute back.

“Dance?” he asks.

“I mean, that was weird right?” Yuuri tries to laugh it off but he can feel his face go red. Why does his face go red so easily, it’s a really cruel trait. “Um, did I ever tell you that I do ballet? I don’t even know.”

“No,” Victor says softly and there’s even a bit of awe in his voice. “You do ballet?”

“Yeah…”

“Wow!”

Victor looks nothing less than ecstatic. Maybe Yuuri should be a little more flustered with the amount of praises that just start pouring out from Victor’s mouth, but to be honest he’s just happy to see his smile again.

So, because the invitation was thrown out there, Victor jumps on it and follows Yuuri off the bus when his stop comes up. Yuuri leads the way to Minako’s studio and just kind of listens to Victor’s gushing at everything he sees as they walk through the studio and towards the back where everyone keeps their things and changes. He puts the little gym bag he carries with him down on the floor so he remembers to take it out with him and opens his locker where his cleanest change of clothes are kept. He starts to take his jacket off, and it’s then that he realizes that he’s going to end up changing into his dance wear. In front of Victor. Who is still talking like nothing odd is happening.

This is nothing, he tells himself. This is just like changing in the locker rooms at school. This is just like that. Nothing is odd.

So why can he not calm down?

Deep breaths, it’s not like he’s going to be wearing tights and a leotard or anything like that today. Just his leggings and a loose shirt, he can do this.

Victor’s chattering just keeps on going, if Yuuri had been paying attention he might have noticed that it’s a little more forced than usual as he speaks way too quickly to be part of a proper conversation and a whole octave higher than normal. And that Victor is staring at the floor the whole time.

And if Victor was paying attention he would have noticed Yuuri switching his clothes off at the speed of light. But he doesn’t, he keeps his eyes firmly on the ground and is rambling now about the time Chris slipped into a hot tub completely naked at a party for no reason whatsoever until suddenly he stops talking.

That catches Yuuri’s attention. At least he’s fully changed now, the only thing missing are his pointe shoes and when he does turn to look at why Victor has suddenly gone quiet he sees that the other is staring down at his bare feet. Yuuri looks down at them too. Ah, well, he guesses he could see why–

“Your feet!” Victor near screeches. “Yuuri! You can’t dance with them like this!”

“It’s okay–“

“How are you even standing?! Should you even be standing?! Come here, sit down!”

Yuuri grabs at his shoulders and laughs. “Victor! Calm down, it’s okay.”

“But–“

“It’s okay,” he repeats. “They look banged up, and they are a little, but this is nothing compared to other people. This is totally normal.”

Victor stares at him for the longest time before his eyes go big again and Yuuri is not prepared at all.

“What do you mean this is normal?!”

Eventually he gets Victor to calm down all together, but he gets a feeling that this is only gonna be something that will be brought up again in the future. Well, that’s a problem for then. Yuuri walks back out into the studio and goes for the barre to begin his stretching.

The time passes with them just chattering. Victor asks Yuuri all sorts of questions about dance and how long he’s done it. Yuuri answers as honestly as he could, but he can’t quite tell Victor the truth about why he started and avoids that one as often as it’s brought up. Which is pretty often, and he feels like Victor would be persistent in asking if Yuuri didn't give him a  _look_.

After his stretches, Victor finds a place to sit and watches Yuuri go through his positions. There is no talking now and the silence that comes over them is too comfortable to be anything like awkward.

It feels natural, and the embarrassment that Yuuri had felt on the bus when he first invited Victor to his practice is now gone.

“What do you usually do when you’re here?” asks Victor.

“It depends. If there’s a recital coming up, we’ll go through our routines. Sometimes we’ll do practices with our own choreographies. Some weeks we’ll work on certain moves and that’s usually when Minako gets intense with us being perfect.”

“Minako?”

“Oh, she’s my teacher. Her and my mom are friends and I’ll admit that gives me special privileges. She’s on vacation right now which is why the studio’s empty. I have my own set of keys and everything.”

“You must be really talented for her to trust you like that.”

“More like she just wants to make sure her friend’s son isn’t wasting away doing nothing."

“I don’t know,” Victor says like he’s so sure and stares once more at Yuuri’s feet.

Yuuri just rolls his eyes and picks up his phone. He opens his music up and taps the song he had first started listening to at the bus stop.

He’s too aware of Victor’s eyes on him. It makes him awkward when he first starts off with a new bit of choreography he had planned more in his head than actually danced through. He starts to get a little frustrated when nothing is really feeling the way he wants, and he begins to realize that its because he just can’t get outside of his head. He tries to ignore Victor’s presence, but when that just seems to make it worse he comes to conclusion that he is just going to have to accept it. So, fine, he will.

With a heavy sigh, Yuuri takes his glasses off and walks back to his bag to pick up his phone and pauses the music. He then walks to Victor, who is ready to stand but Yuuri holds up his hand to keep him sitting.

“Hold these for me?” he asks and smiles when Victor takes them from him. “Also, can you restart the song when I tell you to?”

Of course Victor agrees to do as he asks, and so Yuuri returns to where he stood before in front of the barre and looks at himself in the mirror there. It’s blurry, naturally, but he can still see the outline of his body, and behind him he sees Victor’s form waiting for him. He closes his eyes and breathes in deep.

Victor is watching him. Victor is holding his glasses. Victor is waiting on him to give his word. Victor is here, but Yuuri is the center. Everything is in his control, because without him, none of this is happening. Once he puts it like that in his mind, once he can finally grasp how much hold he has over the situation, he begins to feel better. His feet slip into fourth position, his right arm raised above his head and the other moving off to the side.

“Now,” he says softly and the music fill the room.

There is a definite change in his dance now. He’s able to fall into moves he has worked so hard to perfect under Minako’s stern gaze. Yuuri may not be what is considered a genius in his art, but he does take pride in what he does, and he knows where he can excel. He utilizes everything he has to put on a grand performance. He does show off, he will admit because he knows his jumps have always been the highest and uses them, he knows he can look like he is gliding across the polishes wood and does just that. He still can’t stand on pointe for very long so there are not many times where he does that, but for the brief moments he does he transitions each one into something seamless.

Most importantly, he allows the music to use his body and speak. He doesn’t understand the words, he can’t keep track of what means what when he had looked at a translation long ago, but he knows the story. He feels the love in it, and how this rendition is different from others. This is more longing, still joyful but more tempered and slow. Like it needs to be expressed more sincerely instead of quick paced because somehow that gives it more meaning and makes it more real.

He doesn’t think about what that means, when he hovered over it earlier and how it ties to his thoughts then.

No, Yuuri simply dances, and Victor's eyes on him always is nothing less than the most natural thing in the world.

Eventually, it has to come to an end, and with the music winding down so does he. He ends up in a position away from the bar, somewhere closer to where Victor is no longer sitting but standing with Yuuri’s glasses and cellphone clutched to his chest. Yuuri is panting slightly, his posture relaxes and soon he’s standing like he normally does.

“How was that?” he asks shyly.

Victor is quiet for what seems like ages until finally he drops Yuuri’s things and explodes.

“Yuuri!” he shouts and is clapping with way too much enthusiasm. “That was beautiful!”

“Don’t just drop my stuff!”

“Oh, sorry!”

Once Yuuri knows that his glasses are safe in his bag and his phone isn't damaged, he goes back to the barre with Victor following him. He goes through some cool down routines, and practices on his pirouettes in front of the mirror. He feels like he didn’t do them just right before, and says as much.

“I thought you were gorgeous,” Victor says bluntly, and Yuuri is close enough to make out an odd expression crossing over his face. It’s not one that he’s seen before, and it does make him a little wary.

“Thank you?”

He isn’t sure why he thanked him in the form of a question, all he really knows is that Victor is still looking at him with something unreadable in his eyes and it does make him squirm a little under his stare. He goes back to practicing. He tries to focus the buzz of anticipation and uncertainty into something productive.

“I won’t lie though, I’m a little jealous that I can’t join you,” Victor says quietly and then suddenly gets excited. “You should teach me!”

Yuuri just gapes. “What?”

“Teach me something- Or actually can I lift you?”

“What?!”

“Yeah, dancers do that, right? Like they lift the ballerinas during the dance?”

“Well, yeah-“

“I wanna lift you!”

“You can’t just lift- Victor! Put me down!”

What Victor does is nothing like danseurs do for the ballerinas. He scoops Yuuri up and holds him bridal style and spins around with him in his arms. It’s ridiculous, and it’s amazingly fun.

Yuuri laughs so hard that when Victor does stop long enough for him to wiggle his way down, he’s a little light headed and can feel that his face is colored with all the exertion. He runs a hand through his hair which is a little sweaty from before and sighs. His hands are on his hips, and he’s thinking of going back towards his bag to put his glasses back on when he notices Victor is watching him like before again, but at the same time it feels a little different…

“What?” he asks.

“Nothing,” Victor answers. “Nothing, I was just thinking.”

“That’s dangerous,” Yuuri teases and walks over again to his bag but instead reaches for his water bottle.

“You wound me!”

Yuuri smiles around the mouth of his bottle before he drinks. He feels like Victor is still watching him oddly, but he doesn’t know what to make of that when his vision is too blurry from far away. He just lets it go, thinking it’s best to not make it a big deal and ruin a good day. He ends up picking his glasses back up and slips them on.

“If you want,” he says instead, “I can show you different positions.”

Victor’s cheeks go pink. “I’m sorry, what?”

“The different standing positions?” Yuuri asks a bit confused. This boy is so weird sometimes. “If you still want me to teach you something.”

“Oh! Oh, yeah, that’d be- That’d be really cool.”

Yuuri shakes his head and laughs because this boy…

The rest of what is supposed to be Yuur’s practice is wasted on them fooling around in the studio. Yuuri tries to teach Victor something simple, but it always ends with bad puns and jokes whenever Yuuri puts his hands on Victor’s body to correct something and Yuuri gives up on teaching. After that, it leads to Victor teaching Yuuri the right way to dab, and even tries to get him to add it to a performance to surprise _his_ teacher.

“She’ll kill me,” he says and begins to collect his things. He didn’t nearly do as much as he usually does, but he feels like with Victor here, not much else will be done.

“At least you’ll go out with a bang.”

“I’m not working towards a career here just to die for a meme,” Yuuri laughs.

“A career? Are you gonna be making ballet your career?”

Yuuri doesn’t answer him right away. Because he has thought about it. Some days he wants to keep going. Some days he just wants to keep it a hobby. Minako is always encouraging him to make a decision quickly because he is getting older, but at the same time…

“Maybe,” he settles for. “It’s an option.”

“I think you should.”

Yuuri is kind of taken aback. It’s a little surprising to hear someone outside his family talk about it, and even then, they don’t have strong feelings for it one way or another. Even Phichit doesn’t bring it up much, it’s after all just something Yuuri does and he probably thinks Yuuri looks at it like a small hobby that isn’t all that relevant to everyday life.

“I just… get the feeling that it’s important to you,” Victor goes on to say. “That’s what it seems like. When you dance, I mean. I don’t really know since you won’t tell me why you started.”

He says the last bit with a small, teasing smile that Yuuri ends up returning. If his intention was to get Yuuri to spill, it doesn’t work. He just pats at Victor’s cheek while passing him by and telling him they should be heading out.

He doesn’t see Victor press his hand where Yuuri’s fingers touched him.

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” Yuuri says when they finish locking up.

“I look forward to it!”

Yuuri laughs. “You gotta stick around to hear it though.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” says Victor, and for some reason, he believes it.

(Years later, when they look back on this day Victor will ask again why Yuuri started to dance, and point out that he never did tell him then. And Yuuri will be honest and say it’s because growing up he never thought he would be more than the chubby kid with dorky glasses, and when he was first introduced to Minako through her local performance in Swan Lake, he knew that he wanted to be like the dancers on the stage. He wanted to grow up to be as beautiful as them. It sounded silly then, and it sounds silly when he finally tells Victor, but there it is.)

(And he definitely didn’t want to tell Victor who at 17 looked like he was ready to grace the covers of magazines when he was was still a 15 year old with too long limbs he needed to grow into and pudge around his waist.)

(Victor in turn will not reply right away, but instead take one of Yuuri’s hands lovingly and press a gentle kiss to both the back of it and at his wrist and tell him that he was beautiful at 15 just as he is beautiful now, and he had realized in that studio, on that day with just the two of them, that he was already so much in love.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song yuuri chose to dance to is called 'Liebestod' and it's a version by Jessye Norman that's apparently slower than it should be. ive found the quicker version but i just like the slower one more??
> 
> "but lola, why didn't you use the stay close to me aria??"  
> "because that plays a part later on in the series??"  
> " :o "


	5. The Music Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not how Victor imagined his day going, this is not right at all. There’s an ugly feeling settling heavy at the bottom of his stomach and he’s choked up. He hates this.  
> Phichit, on the other hand, thinks it’s hilarious.  
> “You’re jealous!” he laughs and pops a macaron in his mouth.  
> "I am not!"  
> "Yeah, okay."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmaooo remember me saying i was gonna get 2 chapters out on christmas? i lied i slept for two days, woke up late for work, and then wrote this during two lunch breaks. congrats ya'll for getting 6k words of actual story in this not-date ._.)/
> 
> (but rlly, last chapter, let's get into some actual story. i did say this was gonna be 90% fluff so here's the bit of 10% kind of fluff but not really fluff.)

Victor meets Leo by accident.

He’s heard of the other boy in passing whenever Yuuri and Phichit talk mostly with each other and he’s just a bystander, so he does _know_ of Leo’s existence. He just always figured like the other Yuri in his life, Leo was just someone that yeah, was technically someone, but in the background and no one to really worry about too much.

He should not have thought that.

Mrs Katsuki answers the door when he comes knocking with a container filled with macarons he just needs to show off. He has three more in his bag for Yakov, Chris, and Phichit, but he just had to give Yuuri’s his first. She reminds me so much of Yuuri that he feels no hesitation in giving her a hug and always seems to beam when she returns in.

“Yuuri is upstairs with Leo,” she tells him.

Victor tilts his head in confusion. “Leo?”

“Oh, have you not met Leo yet? He’s one of Yuuri’s old friends from middle school!”

She shoos him upstairs and tells him that Yuuri will be so excited to finally introduce Victor to another one of his friends. Victor doesn’t let his disappointment show, he just smiles at her and climbs up the staircase. It falls when he loses sight of her though. When he had messaged Yuuri earlier asking if he was home, he didn’t mention being with anyone else. Victor was really looking forward to having him all to himself, and okay, that’s a little much. Even he can catch on to that…

Victor can hear music coming from Yuuri’s room and knocks as loudly as he things he should so they can hear him inside. The music stops and he can hear some rustling and hushed voices from the other side of the door. He doesn’t want to think about what could be happening- No, no that’s not possible at all. Victor knows Yuuri, there’s no way.

It’s what he tries to tell himself anyway, but he can’t stop the quick up and down over look when Yuuri opens his door.

“Victor!” he says and Victor forgets his panic with that smile he’s getting. “I’m glad you came over, I want you to meet someone!”

Yuuri grabs him by his hand and leads him into his room. Victor’s eyes are drawn to the other boy sitting on Yuuri’s bed in an instant.

He’s a gangly looking kid with long hair parted down the middle and tanned skin. Yuuri’s laptop is opened next to him with a program he’s never seen before on display and there’s a keyboard piano laying across his lap. He’s nothing special, in Victor’s opinion, what with his whole “chill vibe” appearance. Not like that matters, but still.

“Leo, this is Victor,” he hears Yuuri introduce. “Victor, this is my friend Leo. Me and Phichit used to go to school with him before at Our Lady.”

“Hey,” _Leo_ says to him from the bed like everything is casual and not even a big deal.

“Hi!” Victor’s smile is polite. Maybe not completely sincere, but it is polite and he should be given some points for even _acknowledging_ him before he gives Yuuri the little plastic container filled with macarons. “I brought you something to try!”

“Thank you,” Yuuri says and looks at the cookies through the container. “Wow, these look great!”

Victor puffs out his chest with pride.

“I’ll try them later.”

His chest deflates.

“You don’t wanna try one now?”

“I want to,” Yuuri says and he sounds so sad while saying it. “But I gotta start being careful with my diet again, and I already ate some of the polvorones Leo brought over.”

“My abuelita goes crazy on baking once October hits,” Leo says like _that’s_ enough of an explanation.

“I’ll save them for tomorrow,” Yuuri tells Victor. “I’ll have a sweet breakfast thanks to you!”

He says it with such a cute little smile that makes Victor’s knees weak and has him just nod. That should be fine, right? As long as he tries them.

“Okay, I guess,” he says and then stuffs his hands in his pockets. “This is the first time I’ve ever heard you talk about a diet though.”

“He usually forgets about it when recitals and competitions aren’t happening,” Leo says. “But then one will come up and Minako will be on him about it and he’ll feel guilty and start taking it more seriously”

He gives Yuuri a _look_ that makes Yuuri blush, and ooohh, Victor doesn’t like that at all…

“I take it that you’re going to be on stage soon, then?” Victor asks to stop whatever is happening in front of him from happening. It works because Yuuri’s eyes are back on Victor.

“Oh, yeah, kind of,” he says. “Minako wants us to start working on a Winter Review thing for when the holidays start coming. She says people are more willing to watch a dance and we could probably get some funding for the studio, which means she’s gonna wanna charge. Anyway, Leo’s helping me with music.”

As if on cue, Leo starts tapping away on some keys.

“I can always record something if you want,” he says like that’s no big deal and Victor feels his eyebrow twitch. “I think I did a pretty good job of it last time when I didn’t just remix something for you.”

Sure! Why not? Just record something for Yuuri to use cos it’s so easy to do, just snap music out like that. Anyone can do that! Apparently, Leo’s done that! Victor can feel his mood fluctuate all over the place and be aware of it, and he knows he really just needs to stop… but he can’t seem to do that…

“You gonna record me another Selena cover?” Yuuri asks him and the smile he gives Leo is just way too beautiful, what did he do to deserve that?

“I’ve been working on a softer piano version of Como la Flor,” Leo shrugs and Yuuri just beams all the more.

Oh, wow, Victor cannot say he likes this any better. And he loves when Yuuri smiles…

“No way!”

“Yes, guey.”

“That better not have been a pun.”

Leo doesn’t answer, he just smirks and starts moving his fingers on his keyboard to create a melody that soon becomes the entire focus of the room. Even Victor can’t be mad at this, he’s never heard a song like this before. Like Yuuri’s dancing, Leo’s music can make anyone watching feel the emotions he creates with music and Victor wants to be mad but mostly he can’t help but feel more like he wants this ache settling in his chest to go away.

Yuuri going back to his bed to sit by Leo’s side, doesn’t help that go away though. If anything, it makes it worse, and he doesn’t even know why! The feeling isn’t helped by Leo starting to sing, and God help him when Yuuri joins him.

Today, Victor learns that Yuuri is able to sing in Spanish. But not well, because Leo messes up when he starts laughing and says as much.

“You say _t_ _ú_ so weird, I’m never gonna get over it!”

“Phichit says I am definitely improving!” Yuuri starts to defend himself. “Tú! Tú! Tú! Tú!”

“Stop butchering my language! I’m gonna smother you with your own pillow.”

Victor doesn’t know how much more of this he can take.

“Well,” he says maybe a little too loudly but he can’t find it in him to care. He wants them to remember that he’s in the room too. “I guess, I should get out of your guys’ way. Since you’re busy and everything.”

“You can stay,” Yuuri tells him, but the way that he’s looking at Victor makes him feel like he actually _did_ forget Victor was in the room and that is just something he cannot deal with right now.

“No, it’s okay.” Victor tries to give him a reassuring smile. He doesn’t know how well it works out, but by the look on Yuuri’s face it’s probably not that convincing. “I have other treats to pass out.”

“Okay,” Yuuri says. “Do you want me to walk you out?”

“No,” Victor tells him. “No, I’ll be fine. You guys just keep on.. working..”

He ends up rushing out of the room before he’s able to make it awkward. This is not how Victor imagined his day going, this is not right at all. There’s an ugly feeling settling heavy at the bottom of his stomach and he’s choked up. He hates this.

Phichit, on the other hand, thinks it’s hilarious.

“You’re jealous!” he laughs and pops a macaron in his mouth.

They’re currently at Phichit’s local coffee house hang out. He had let Victor know that he was going to be here for most of the day if he wanted to join him later as he works on some photo editing. It’s on the way to Chris’ job at the mall and if Victor is completely honest he thought he wouldn’t show up for a long while. He was hoping to catch Chris at the end of his shift after hanging out with Yuuri, but there’s still three hours ‘til that…

“I am not!” Victor says way too quickly and snaps his mouth shut when Phichit gives him a look.

“Yeah, okay,” Phichit says like he completely _believes_ that. “You shouldn’t be, though. I don’t think Leo’s had a crush on Yuuri since we were in middle school.”

“What?!”

“Yuuri just won’t believe me when I tell him he’s a head turner.” Phichit shrugs and pops another cookie into his mouth. “He was always a cute kid, and he always got the most valentines. But he always thought it was just because the teachers said we _haad_ to give them to everyone if we were gonna pass them out.”

Phichit taps away at his phone and scrolls through one of his apps before he finds what he’s looking for. He hands his phone over to Victor so he is able to see a photo of the three of them sitting on a bench in what looks like a baseball field. Phichit is the one in the picture the most since he’s up front taking the group selfie, Yuuri is right behind him with the most adorable round cheeks and large smile… and behind Yuuri is Leo with his hair shorter and combed off to the side and making the biggest pair of heart eyes at Yuuri.

Phichit pulls his phone out of Victor’s hand before he’s able to crush it. He can’t afford that; his life depends way too much on it.

“But that was then,” he tells him. “Pretty sure Leo’s crushing on this new kid they just got at his school. I don’t remember her name, but yeah, I think you’re good.”

Victor leans back in his seat and thinks about that. “I don’t know… Yuuri is a literal ray of pure sunlight, I don’t think anyone out there could be any better.”

“Boy, you are so damn extra,” Phichit sighs and goes back to his laptop. “Look, I like you Victor, I do, but Yuuri is my best friend and near literal brother. And I’m a ride-n- die type of ho, so you mess any of this up and I’m gonna hurt you.”

“I- Did I just get a shovel talk?”

“Nope! This is a pre-shovel talk, you’ll get the actual shovel talk when something actually happens.” Phichit saves his work and shuts his laptop. He looks as serious as ever and it’s not something Victor is used to.

“Okay, look,” he begins, “Yuuri has zero experience here, because there is no way I’m counting the small time span that was the Margot era, because poor Margot didn’t even catch on to the fact that Yuuri had no idea she was kind of his girlfriend until I had to tell her.  You know what happened after that?”

Victor shakes his head, because of course he doesn’t know.

“She just stopped talking to him. Stopped hanging around him, and basically did the bare minimum to interact with him. And you know what Yuuri did? Nothing! He didn’t do anything because something like that is _normal_ to him. He thinks he’s this bland, boring, insignificant person that can’t hold anyone’s interest and thought she just figured that out.”

Phichit picks up his drink and downs it in one go like he’s just become frustrated over the whole thing all over again.

“That’s Yuuri,” he says. “You have no idea how long and how hard I had to work to get him to let you hang around us, cos he did keep asking me to get you to leave us alone.”

“What?!”

“You gotta admit you went 0 to 100 real fast when you started hanging around us. Like, I saw your heart eyes, but think of how _he_ thinks and then look at you. That made no sense to him, and to be honest I’m not completely sure he doesn’t think you’re gonna run out on him one day.”

“But I’m not!”

“I’m not the one you gotta convince here. All you gotta do with me, is take care of my best friend. With Yuuri… you are not in for an easy ride, some days it’s gonna be battle to get him convinced you care about him as deeply as you probably do.”

“But, I- Wha- I’m no good at that!” Victor nearly shouts and calls attention to their table. At least he has the decency to look a little sheepish at the fact.

“At least you admit it. But, that’s not gonna change Yuuri, so if that’s something you don’t think you can deal with, you need to tap out now before he does fall for you completely.”

Victor perks up visibly. “You think he’s falling for me?”

“Not the point,” Phichit says quickly to keep Victor’s mind on track. “Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Like I said though, if you can’t handle someone like Yuuri, you need to tap out now and just stay his friend.”

Victor stays quiet for a long time. He can understand where Phichit is coming from, and to be honest he kind of noticed it, but he never thought it was something that extreme. And he was telling the truth, he doesn’t know how to deal with other people’s emotions, he can barely handle his own! But at the same time…

He thinks of Yuuri dancing in Minako’s studio. He thinks of him walking with him in the dead of night just to eat ice cream. He thinks of the times they’ve walked home together. Of the mental catalogue he has of every smile he’s been able to get out of Yuuri, of every small and large blush, and of every joke they’ve shared. He thinks of the lunches they’ve spent together and the text messages he gets late at night when he sends one off without really expecting a response but he gets one and that leads to simple yet special conversations he wants to save forever and ever.

He thinks of the first time they met, and how important that night was to him. Yuuri may not remember that night completely, or all of what was said between them, but Victor does. And if he wasn’t able to forget about it in the months it took before they were able to see each other again, he’s certainly not going to now.

“I don’t think I could tap out,” he says kind of softly. “I’m gonna have to do whatever I can because I don’t think I can come back from what I feel now.”

Phichit isn’t saying anything, and Victor wonders if he said something wrong. Although, from the way his mouth is hanging open and the way he’s staring, he probably isn’t saying anything for a different reason.

“Oh. My. Goood,” he ends up cooing. “That is so.. I can’t even a word right now! You gotta let me do your guys’ pictures and video for the wedding!”

“If you’re offering to work for free, sure!”

“Wow! Cannot believe I just traded Yuuri to someone who’s broke a-f for some candid shots.”

By the time Victor leaves Phichit he’s feeling better about how the morning went.

It gets him through the rest of the weekend until the next school day hits. He’s more or less acting as usual and none of the awkwardness is brought up until Yuuri brings up the macarons during their lunch break.

“They were so good!” he says. “I forgot to bring back your container though.”

“That’s okay,” Victor tells him. “I watched Phichit eat all of his and then throw it away in front of me.”

“It was a reflex,” Phichit says. “I couldn’t help it.”

“It’s not a reflex if you shout for me to watch when you throw it across the coffee shop and don’t even make it into the trash can. Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I just get them for cheap at the dollar market. I’m just glad you liked them!”

“Yeah, they were the best macarons I’ve ever had,” Yuuri sounds so happy when he says it again and Victor can’t help but smile in return.

“Did Leo like them?” Phichit asks.

Victor knows that he’s only asking as a rib to how jealous he was acting after meeting the other boy, but still, he can’t help the unimpressed look he sends Phichit over Yuuri’s head. He doesn’t even notice that Yuuri’s cheeks have flushed a light pink.

“He, actually didn’t have one?” he kind of laughs off. “He was eyeing them, but I didn’t offer and he didn’t ask?”

“Wait, what? You always share food. I mean, unless it’s something you wanna hoard all for yourself–”

Yuuri pushes Phichit backwards off their ledge. The other boy falls with a loud yelp and a heavy thud, but Yuuri pays him no attention. He goes back to talking to Victor.

“They really were good,” he says again. “Thank you.”

“Thank you!” Victor is so happy he gives him the biggest smile he’s ever given him. “Oh, but how did the music search go? Did you find something to use?”

“Yeah, Yuuri,” Phichit says with a bit of a groan in his voice while he lifts himself back up. “Am I gonna have to watch you dance to another one of Leo’s Selena covers?”

“I was thinking about it,” says Yuuri. “But… I dunno, I’m just not feeling anything we’ve been going over. I think maybe I’ve been doing too much of the same stuff?”

“You should do something from a musical. Like The Kin–!”

“No!”

“What is it that you’re looking for?” Victor asks him. “I might not know a lot about music-“

“What kind of music do you listen to?” Phichit cuts him off to ask.

 “Um…” Victor trails off because the sudden tune of Dancing Lasha Tumbai sounds off in his head. “Most of it is foreign…”

“Like, what?” Yuuri asks this time. “I don’t really listen to a lot of the mainstream stuff-“

“He means he watches too much anime and has a whole playlist of openings,” Phichit interrupts, again.

Yuuri pushes him off the ledge. Again.

“Most of the music I have are either classical pieces, remixes, or just in different languages,” he goes on to tell Victor like he just didn’t throw his best friend over for the second time in the span of ten minutes. “I think I’m able to dance better if I can’t understand the lyrics too well. At least, that’s what I’m told, I’m pretty sure I can always improve someway.”

“I don’t see how,” Victor tells him. “I think you’re pretty perfect already.”

Yuuri’s blush comes back and settles on his cheeks and spreads across the bridge of his nose. He doesn’t look away from Victor though, he just lets it happen and gives him a bit of a shrug before he goes back to picking at his lunch box.

“There’s always something I could improve on,” Yuuri mutters.

“Yeah,” says Phichit and climbs back up. “Like the way you treat your friends for one.”

Yuuri ignores him. “I am a little worried though. By now I should be coming up with some kind of outline for a choreography or something, and I still haven’t even chosen my music.”

Victor doesn’t know how to answer him. He would offer some of his own music, but then he thinks about what exists on his laptop and… Oh… Well, that could work.

“My music is kind of…” he trails off while trying to think of the right word for it, “…different. But, I did get a new album that might have something? If you wanna come over to my place after school and listen to it?”

“Over to your house?”

The way Yuuri asks is a little strange, and Victor knows why. He’s always gone out of his way to make it so that only Chris has ever been inside of his home. If he were more comfortable, he would always have Yuuri over. And Phichit. But as it is, he just prefers to not have them over. But the new album is the only thing he doesn’t have on his phone right now, otherwise he would just play if not for Yuuri or better yet, go over to _his_ home. But it is Monday so she should be out later than usual. The house should be empty…

“Yeah,” he finally says. “You should come over, if you want. I got a lot of music on my laptop you can go through, if you think it’ll help.”

“Yeah, okay!” Yuuri says maybe a little too excited, but he doesn’t even seem to be embarrassed by it. He might still just be excited to finally be invited over. “Phichit, are you in?”

The invite hadn’t been given to Phichit, not really, but Victor isn’t going to say anything against it. The two are too close to at least not to do that much. But Phichit looks over at Yuuri and seems like he’s about to agree, but then he looks over at Victor and then says, “Actually, I can’t. I gotta help my dad out. After school. With some stuff.”

“O-kay?”

Yuuri looks so confused by Phichit’s choppy answer that Victor can’t hide away the small giggle that escapes from him. With Yuuri’s attention away from him, Phichit catches Victor’s eye and gives him a thumbs up. Victor’s smile just grows.

The school day ends and Victor even keeps on his best behavior so that he’s still in class at the end of the it. He’s only does that because this classroom is closest to Yuuri’s last one and he wants to spend as much time as possible around him. He runs out as soon as they’re dismissed to go and sprints over just in time to see Yuuri and Phichit walking out into the halls.

Phichit does walk with them part way, but leaves them soon with a wink and a goodbye of basically telling them both to have fun. Victor laughs and flushes a light pink thinking that it was addressed to him, he doesn’t even notice the way Yuuri buries his face in his hands to calm himself down.

The entire walk is them talking. Mostly Yuuri speaking about his loss of motivation because he just can’t find anything to inspire anything he’s happy with choreography wise. He’s been trying remixes to make the classical pieces different, but even those seem to fall flat, and he’s not sure if he wants to do something slow because _everyone_ will be.

“I mean though,” he says. “I guess at this point, if I can find something that will get me to care about it, I’ll figure something out.”

“That’s a really half-assed way of doing things.”

“I know!”

Victor’s neighborhood is different from Yuuri’s as far as the style of houses go. Yuuri’s block is filled with two-to-three floor homes whereas Victor’s is all single floor houses with a standard size front and back yard. It’s nothing special, but Yuuri looks happy to be invited in. The second they do, Makkachin bursts out from the hallway and jumps right at Yuuri. He catches him in his arms and snuggles up to the puppy.

“Makkachin,” he smiles into the fur. “I’ve missed you so much!”

“I knew you only liked me for my dog.”

“You’re pretty all right, yourself. Not a dog, but still okay.”

“Oh, cruel beauty, with your biting words!”

When their moment of playtime ends, Victor asks him if he’d like anything to drink before he takes him into his bedroom, and he doesn’t bother to ask about a snack when Yuuri tells him he’s fine. The walk to his room takes a little longer than usual because there are photos on the wall Yuuri is nosy enough to want to look at. Victor is able to lead him away from that easily enough, and once inside, Yuuri drops Makkachin off in his pet bed where he promptly hops out of and jumps onto the actual bed. Victor settles himself next to the puppy and Yuuri follows after him. He tries not to think about everything Yuuri is looking at while his laptop starts up.

“So, what album are we gonna listen to?” Yuuri asks.

“Her name is Jamala!” Victor tells him, and he knows he’s too excited when he starts talking but he can’t help it. This topic always gets him going. “Her 1944 album came out this year and it has a song on it called the same thing that is just really amazing! She won Eurovision last year with it!”

“Eurovision?”

Oh, no…

“Oh…” Victor trails off and realizes that he’s just let Yuuri into his secret Eurovision life. “It’s.. a song contest.”

Yuuri just looks at him to continue. Well…

“Okay, so… It’s kind of like American Idol, except involving all of Europe, and each country enters one song and then people vote for the one they like the most. Sometimes it’s kind of weird, but those are actually the best? Like, one year Ireland entered with a turkey sock puppet and their song was just the puppet screaming ‘give 12 points to Ireland!’ over and over again.”

Yuuri looks at him for the longest time, and then he finally says, “That.. is amazing? Why have I not heard of this?”

Victor lets go of a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding and smiles brightly.

They spend the couple of hours not only listening to the album, but Victor ends up showing him the various playlists he has from all of the years he’s watched Eurovision. That leads to Yuuri scrolling through to see that he actually has multiple based on language, genre, and one extremely long one that looks like every song from every Ukrainian contestant.

“I just really like the music that comes from Ukraine?” he says unsurely and doesn’t even get mad when Yuuri doesn’t say anything but does give him that fond little smile. Victor just smiles back.

He ends up putting the majority of what he owns on a spare USB drive for Yuuri to take home. He even tells him that when the competition starts up again, they could even maybe watch it together so Yuuri will understand what he’s been talking about this whole time. Yuuri wonders aloud if they would even be able to make it a small party with Phichit and Chris, and Victor is forced to admit that Chris doesn’t exactly know about this. That earns him an odd look and he quickly changes the subject back to Yuuri’s upcoming performance.

“Even if you don’t end up finding something for your dance,” he says, “maybe you can add on to the different languages you know.”

“I don’t really know Spanish,” Yuuri tells him, but he takes the drive. “I know the one chorus and that’s only because it’s Leo’s favorite song and played it on repeat once for a week. That entire week, if you saw Leo, you were listening to Como la Flor.”

It goes quiet between them. Victor doesn’t know what to say to that, and Yuuri is busy playing with the USB in his hands.

“What’s your favorite song?”

“Out of everything I gave you?” Victor asks.

“Maybe not everything,” Yuuri laughs. “We’d be here all night if I made you choose.”

Victor wouldn’t mind, if he were to be honest.

“Nah… how ‘bout just one on the one whole album you gave me.”

“Jamala’s? Well…”

There’s something telling about a person when letting someone else know their favorite song. That’s how Victor feels right now. He knows which one is his favorite, but to let someone else know always feels like he’s exposing a more private part of him somehow. He does hope Yuuri doesn’t ask _why_ because he honestly doesn’t know if he can truly explain it.

“Way to Home,” he finally answers. “That one’s my favorite one.”

Yuuri stops playing with the drive and looks over at Victor’s face. He doesn’t say anything, just gives him a small little smile Victor can’t figure the meaning to but returns it all the same. It’s nice, this moment, just the two of them sitting on his bed in the quiet. He enjoys their conversations, but the moments where it’s just the two of them being comfortable in each other’s company is something he loves too.

It’s ruined when he hears the sound of the front door being unlocked.

His bedroom door is opened and he panics. He’s not doing anything wrong, there is nothing wrong with just having a friend over, but he doesn’t want Yuuri to be a part of this… _thing_. Yuuri is everything good in Victor’s life, and he wants to keep that separate from–

“Victor?” a voice, one that is not too high-pitched and carries a tone of authority, calls out.  “Are you home?”

He doesn’t answer, he doesn’t even breathe.  Yuuri is looking at him oddly, probably wondering if he’s going to be introduced and instead Victor gives him a smile he knows for sure looks so insincere.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow?” he asks him, and pretends he doesn’t notice the surprise on the other’s face.

“Um.. yeah, I guess?”

Victor gets up and Yuuri follows him out of his room, clearly confused. Makkachin looks like he’s about to pounce after them, but Victor gives him the command to wait. He lets Yuuri pet him goodbye as he looks out his door to see where she went. She’s nowhere in sight and grabs Yuuri’s hand to lead him out of the house. It’s not even that far or a distance from his bedroom to the front door but his heart is pounding in his ears the whole time and he’s just happy when they finally step outside.

“Sorry about that,” he tells him and closes the door so they can still have some semblance of privacy. “I didn’t mean to rush you out, I just kind of… panicked?”

He tries to laugh it off and make it a joke, but Yuuri doesn’t say anything. He just kind of stares at him and then his eyes flicker behind him to the closed door. He wishes he knew what was happening in his mind, what pieces he was trying to put together to figure out his odd behavior. Because he knows that suddenly throwing out a friend from your home is not exactly the normal thing to do.

“Victor…”

Yuuri says his name like it’s a fragile piece of thin glass and needs to be cradled. It makes him nervous.

“I kinda started thinking this before…” Yuuri starts out but then trails off again. “Since, you don’t..  I don’t want to seem like I’m overstepping or anything, but…. are.. you okay… here?”

Victor can’t be sure about the kind of face that he’s making, and if Yuuri already suspects this much, there really isn’t an option to brush it off and tell him that he’s imagining things. Especially since he doesn’t want to be untruthful, but this… no, not yet.

“I’m fine,” he says with a light shrug. The little laugh he makes sounds pretty hollow, but it wasn’t supposed to be amused in any case. “There’s a thing, a complicated thing. But, I’m fine.”

Yuuri does not look like he really likes that answer. If anything, it draws his lips down into a deeper frown and makes his brows scrunch up like they do whenever he becomes really concerned about something. Victor tries to give him a little smile. It’s not a forced polite one, or one that he tries to pass off as happy. It’s just what it is; a sad little smile of someone who just learned to deal with things as they are.

He doesn’t expect the sudden hug Yuuri gives him. He just leaps right into him and circles his arms around his waist and Victor wraps his own around Yuuri out of sheer habit.

“If you ever need to,” he hears Yuuri’s muffled words speaking into his chest, “you can talk to me. I’m right here for you. We all are.”

Victor clutches on to him tighter and buries his face into the top of Yuuri’s hair.

He loves him.

He.

Loves.

Him.

_He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him. He loves him._

**_He loves him._ **

He really does…

Victor pulls away first. He has to send Yuuri home. He needs to have some semblance of self-control in this house and having Yuuri around just makes him want to stay close to him and hold his hand and do other cuddly things that would just not go down well.

“Thanks,” he says. “And, uh, yeah, again, I don’t know if anything on that thing will help you out, but hey maybe one day you’ll be singing random choruses in Ukrainian.”

“Do you?”

“It’s better than my Russian.”

Yuuri laughs at that and after that serious moment between them, he’s just glad to hear it. It’s almost normal when they wave goodbye to each other. Victor stays on the front porch to watch Yuuri walk away until he’s out of sight and even then, he doesn’t go back inside right away. He can’t stay outside forever though, and he’ll see him again tomorrow. He still kind of hesitates when he goes back inside, but at least he knows he has Makkachin waiting for him.

Ahh, he’s so happy Yuuri loves Makkachin, he thinks as he goes back inside. Oh, he wonders if Yuuri loves all kinds of dogs or just poodles–

“Vitya,” the same voice comes from inside the kitchen and Victor’s good mood is now gone. “Who just left?”

_The love of his life._

“Just a friend.”

(Yuuri doesn’t talk about the song that he chooses. Whenever Victor asks him about it, he gives him an odd and shy kind of smile and says that he’ll see when he performs.)

(When the day comes and he’s sitting in the dead center of everyone attending and Yuuri’s performance is being introduced, he is conflicted between being utterly astounded that the song he has chosen is his favorite one, completely enraptured with Yuuri’s choreography, and mildly annoyed with Phichit for taking picture after picture of Victor’s face while watching and taking him out of the moment all because Yuuri told _him_ what song it was going to be.)

(Afterwards Yuuri’s family holds a small party to celebrate his performance and Yuuri ends up taking Victor aside to give him back his USB drive. He tells him that since Victor shared his music, he wants to share some of his favorites. Most of them are Japanese, and a lot are just because they’ve done anime openings, but he figured it was only fair as one fanboy to another.)

(Victor wants to kiss him. God, does he want to kiss him. He holds back though. He hugs him instead and tells him just how wonderful he was on stage and smiles so wide when Yuuri hugs him back.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Victor's favorite Jamala song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibDs5us7eB8)   
>  [Leo's piano cover of Como la Flor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_H6yKoNgc)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> (i've had that song stuck in my head since christmas eve gat dang)
> 
> we getting in to some more serious parts of this series, fam. kudos, comment, poke me on tumblr, don't let me slack off. remind me that this exists and i need to write more, please. -_-)/


	6. The Birthday Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor used to enjoy midnight mass.

Victor used to enjoy midnight mass.

He used to smile brightly when his mother would anoint his forehead with the sign of the cross in holy water when they would first enter the church. He would follow after his family excitedly and follow their every move exactly. He would kneel in a bow before the altar and slide into the pew, kneel and say a prayer before service, sit still and wait for mass to begin.

He did have trouble with that last part for a while when he was younger, but his grandfather would reach over and pinch the underside of his arm to get him to sit quietly. He learned quickly and did as he was told.

He doesn’t have that problem now, but it’s more for the reason that now he’s just not as excited as he once was. He still allows his mother to cross him, he still follows protocol, he still kneels but… he doesn’t exactly say a prayer. If God is listening to him, He’s been hearing the same thing for the past couple of years.

_Please, just let me get through the night quickly. I want to go to bed._

The one thing that has not changed over the years, he realizes is the way he admires the architecture. It seems contradictory, when he actually thinks about it. His whole life he has been taught lessons of modesty and humility, but the arches and high vaulted ceilings combined with the window after window after window of expansive stained glass are just the tip of how beautiful this church is and how much money must have been put in to making it like this.

“I don’t understand how anyone can turn away from our church,” his mother once said. “It is such a beautiful religion.”

He can’t disagree with her too much because the churches have always been beautiful. The actual religion….

His feelings are too conflicted on that part. He’s older and seen things, heard things, and has had things said _to_ him that he can’t shake off without them leaving some kind of an impression. He ends up dwelling on them for as long as he needs to sit here and the only good thing of having to attend mass on a regular basis is that he can go through the motions without too much thought. The hymns are ingrained in him that he can sing along without noticing how he’s not _really_ paying attention, and he honestly completely blanks out for the two hours he needs to be here.

It’s easier than letting certain thoughts plague him like they sometimes do when he’s in present company…

After the mass used to be his favorite part too. He would hold on to his mother’s hand as she greeted her friends and smile up at everyone that would wish him a “Merry Christmas” and the occasional “Happy Birthday”. The latter would be far rarer and as he gets older they become non-existent.

His mother doesn’t help with that. When he was younger she mentioned that he should count himself blessed for sharing the same day as their Lord, and she mentions it every year, but other than that she never makes an effort to separate the two occasions. Victor has long since given up trying to get that to happen. After all, one is more important than the other, and should not be shadowed. He does his best to not let it get to him. He learns to deal.

Though if anything, these occasions just gets worse after he’s enrolled in St. Agatha’s. The first year she had _suggested_ he wear his school uniform to the midnight mass was strained at best. He made the attempt to tell her he’d be more comfortable in his everyday wear, and in the end he wore his uniform. He smiled at the way people congratulated him, smiled with his mother and thanked them, and wished them a _Merry Christmas_.

“How lucky you are, Vitya,” she says again this year once the usual friends leave them alone. Just like clockwork.

He doesn’t reply.

Yakov approaches them still in his vestments and it’s the usual back and forth between him and his mother. They speak about Victor’s school performance like he isn’t standing next to him. His mother will ask about him being more involved in the church. Yakov will say again, that it’s up to Victor to decide. His mother will poke and prod at the subject, though. There’s no stopping her.

“He would make such a fine priest,” she says in the end. “Ah, but then again, I would like grandchildren.”

That’s a first. He has always thought that’s what she would expect, but it’s the first time she’s said it out loud.

Victor finally brings himself to look at Yakov, who in turn is looking at him. They both turn their eyes away at the same time.

“I keep telling you, Lenochka,” Yakov ends up saying. “It’s up to Victor to decide.”

“And he never will if you keep being indecisive in his future like this!” she says playfully and smack at his shoulder. “Will we see you at Katya’s later? You know the family is no good at ending ‘the argument’ with Lyosha if you’re not there.”

“I’ll be there.”

Yakov leaves after squeezing Victor’s shoulder. It’s a silent affirmation that he will not tell and Victor simply nods. He feels so nauseas it’s as if his entire stomach just wants to heave up his throat. Not just his dinner from hours before, his literal entire stomach. He really just wants to go home.

As it turns out though, even the car ride home is a trial. His mother goes through the list of their family friends, and how pretty their daughters have all grown to be. He knows what she’s doing and he plays along. As well as he can. She has done this every year since _that year_ and he just… can’t… not this time. He plays on his exhaustion when she asks why he’s gotten quiet.

“Senior year,” he says simply. “It’s been harder than before.”

She can’t say anything to that, and he is so glad she lets him lean his head against the window in silence.

He doesn’t hesitate to unbuckle himself once they hit their driveway. He’s out of the door and waiting for his mother at the front door before she’s even turned off the engine. He’d be more concerned about behaving odd if he hadn’t done the same exact thing so many years before, she probably thinks it’s just a part of the eccentric personality he’s cultivated over time.

Still, he can’t be completely callous. He does say goodnight to her and wishes her a Merry Christmas. He even kisses her cheek. He’s a damn good son even if he doesn’t feel like it 90 percent of the time.

Well, he can’t help himself on that part.

He locks himself in his bedroom and starts to strip out of his uniform. He quickly throws on a pair of old pajama pants and a random shirt. He should try to get some sleep before he has to deal with the entire family later on, he’s going to need the rest, but instead he ends up huddled under his blanket with his favorite movie going on.

It’s not very far into the movie when he hears tapping at his window.

Victor ignores it. It’s probably something the wind picked up and knocked against the glass. He’s too comfortable to actually investigate. But then it keeps going, and it starts getting louder. He has to get up now. This cannot be explained away.

He pauses the movie and hops out of bed. He’s not event that far away when he sees Yuuri’s face near the window with his hands cupped to look inside. He ends up pulling back when he sees that Victor has finally noticed him and smiles wide. He waves at him and Victor, unsure of what to do, waves back.

Yuuri says something to him but be can’t understand him through the glass. Victor walks over to the window in no time at all and opens it.

“What are you doing here?” he asks

“Wanna go get some hot chocolate with me?”

And that’s all he’s given. It’s the middle of the night and Yuuri is outside his window bundled up away from the cold in his too big sweater and beanie that makes him look all the more adorable, with nothing but the offer of getting some hot chocolate and a smile he wants to treasure forever. Naturally, Victor gets dressed.

He sneaks out from his window, because it’s easier to know that there’s no way his mother will hear him leave that way. He’s glad Yuuri doesn’t ask him why he just doesn’t leave through the front door, it just makes it all easier to just enjoy the night.

They end up walking to a 24-hr donut shop and sit in the corner booth of the empty store front. Victor buys them a whole bag of donut holes to share since Yuuri ends up buying hot chocolate for the both of them. They end up taking turns taking one out of the bag and shooting a piece of donut through the air so the other will catch it. Yuuri ends up doing better than Victor, who keeps getting hit in the face and ends up with sugar in his eye.

“You’re doing that on purpose,” he laughs and tries to blink it away.

“My aim is perfect,” says Yuuri. “Not my fault you can't see where they're going. Maybe you’re the one that needs glasses.”

“Hey, it’s Christmas, you can’t be mean to me.”

“Oh, that reminds me!”

Yuuri reaches over for the back pack he’s brought along and brings it onto his lap. He digs into through it and ends up pulling out a gift. It’s just a small shaped square of a box wrapped in gold glitter dusted paper and a black bow. It’s probably nothing extravagant, or even something that would cost that much, but Victor feels himself choke up because there’s no one else here that present could be for.

“I actually forgot to buy wrapping paper,” Yuuri says, a little embarrassed. “So Mari, wrapped it for me with what she used for her friends.”

He slides it over the table towards Victor, who in turn just kind of stares at it until he finally slides it closer to himself.

He looks to Yuuri, who only gestures at him to unwrap it, and he goes about it slowly. First, by taking off the bow, and then by doing his best to take the wrapping apart where the tape is. There haven’t been many cases where he’s been given a gift. Usually there’s the one at Christmas dinner, but those stopped once he was no longer a child. Him and Chris don’t trade gifts, they never have been those kind of friends. All the same, he just hopes Yuuri doesn’t notice the way his hands are shaking.

When he finally get it unwrapped, the first thing he see on the small white box is the Eurovision logo stamped on it. He tears into the box more excitedly than he had the paper.

It turns out to be a mug. Just a regular white mug with the word “LOVE” stamped on it in large letters. The Ukranian flag is displayed inside the ‘O’.

“Not the Russian flag?” he asks with a shaky laugh. He wants to believe it’s the last don’t he ate that’s leaving him all choked up.

“You don’t have a playlist dedicated to Russia,” Yuuri laughs back. “Pretty sure you’re in love with Ukraine. I would hate to think what would happen if that secret ever got out.”

“Good thing I know I can trust you.”

Ahh, it’s such a simple little thing but it’s made him so happy! He turns the mug over and over in his hand and admires it. It’s near four o’clock in the morning on Christmas day and he’s sitting in a cramped up corner booth of a donut shop with the boy he loves. This is amazing! Nothing could be better!

“Victor.”

His attention is drawn back to Yuuri who is watching him over the rim of his cup. He smiles at him and says, “Happy birthday!”

Victor doesn’t know when he starts crying.

“Victor?!”

“I’m okay!” he near shouts and starts to wipe away at his face. Wow, he really is crying. “I’m fine, I’m just… really happy?”

And he is. He really is. Chris was right, thinking back on a conversation that seems like it happened a lifetime ago, Victor is so happy right now. Yuuri is to thank for all of that. With Yuuri he is able to breathe easier, there is no crushing weight on his shoulders, and there’s no reason to play pretend. His heart is always so much lighter, and existing is so much kinder when he’s with Yuuri, he never wants it to end.

When he’s finally composed enough to stop wiping away at his face, he notices Yuuri staring at him oddly. It looks like he’s confused, his lips twisted in a way that doesn’t know if he wants to smile or grimace. His face is flushed and he looks nauseas.

“Are you okay?” he asks.

“I’m fine!” he says quickly. “I’m just- I never, I’ve never seen you cry before.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay.”

“That must’ve been weird to see.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m just really happy!” Victor confesses and smiles widely. “It’s been so long since someone gave me something for my _birthday_. I’m so lucky to have you in my life now!”

And there’s that weird expression again. Victor doesn’t know what to think and he’s about to ask if Yuuri really is okay, but then Yuuri reaches over and takes Victor’s hand in his. His breath hitches, but he laces their fingers together and keeps them there.

“I’m glad I have you in my life too,” Yuuri says quietly, and there’s that blush again.

Victor smiles again at him. Not his large wide heart-shaped smile, it’s something small and telling and has all of his love poured into it. He can just feel it come off of him in waves, and he wonders if Yuuri can feel it too. He wonders if Yuuri knows just how much he loves him.

Even if he can’t, and even if he doesn’t, it’s nice to simply be here in this moment with the one person who means the most to him…

“I’m gonna drink out of this right now!”

“Wait! Shouldn’t you wash new dishes first?!”

“Why would you wash them if they’re new?”

“You just do?”

(Later, Victor is exhausted when spending time with the family. He’s barely able to participate in the conversations going on around him and doesn’t get caught up in the argument started by his uncles over whether or not the family should celebrate on the 25th or the 7th… again… He doesn’t even notice his baby cousin Yuri kicking his legs under the table during dinner. When he gets home he finds out that he now has gross blue and purple splotches all over where his tiny feet hit him.)

(It’s the best birthday ever.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was thinking of just making this a separate part instead of a surprise chapter since i missed christmas but i'll just throw this on the end and call it a year.
> 
> (let's pretend i was able to get this out on the 25th. sorry victor!)
> 
> so chronologically it would be the market date, the dance date, the midnight ice cream run date, the music date, the accidental weekend movie marathon date, and then the birthday date
> 
> but yeah okay now i'm gonna start the next part -_-)/

**Author's Note:**

> for people following the series, none of these chapters are really in chronological order because it's really just a random list phichit.. listed.
> 
> if you're wondering why mari calls victor his boyfriend like nothing it's because they've met before, and she knows. *finger guns*


End file.
